These Social Media Apps Are Trying To Inspire The Best In Humanity

Harold Stark
, SubscriberBringing the world up to speed on lifestyle technology.Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.

The Women's March in San Jose, California

“In spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart. I simply can’t build up my hopes on a foundation consisting of confusion, misery, and death. I see the world gradually being turned into a wilderness, I hear the ever approaching thunder, which will destroy us too, I can feel the sufferings of millions and yet, if I look up into the heavens, I think that it will all come right, that this cruelty too will end, and that peace and tranquility will return again.” - Anne Frank, The Diary Of A Young Girl

Every child is born innocent. Soft and sculptable. It is situations that change us. It is circumstances that force us to adapt. They turn us into something entirely different from the people we were supposed to be. And yet, despite everything, there remains within every human being a desire to do good, however misguided their means may be. According to a report released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 62.6 million people engaged some form of volunteer work or other in the United States of America in 2016. That, at the very least, speaks to our inner desire to speak out for the causes that matter and help those who are in need. And while the country technological hub is right now the farthest place from our minds, for it is the land of statistics not humanity, a new generation of bold startups have taken it upon themselves to use the power of social virality to bring out the best in people’s hearts. But can a bunch of social media applications help build a safer, more responsible community?

You don’t even have to do anything. Sometimes, all it takes to make a worthwhile contribution to society is to be part of a community of people who are nice, friendly and empathetic. If you’re tired of all of the harassment, cyberbullying and petty politicking that goes on in popular social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter, consider checking out apps like Kudos and tbh to safely introduce your kids to the idea of being responsible online while interacting with friends and unknown strangers. Gamee is the new safe haven for gamers across the world who just want to enjoy a friendly match without the need for profanity or verbal harassment. New games are coming in all the time and the developers really do their best to encourage a friendly competition between buddies here. The app is completely free, no ads and no payments. GoodGuide, a fresh new app for the socially responsible, has found yet another way to help users participate in the creation of a safer and healthier community by allowing them to crosscheck different consumable goods to see if they are as healthy as they claim to be.

What do you do in your spare time? Play Farmville on your phone? Scroll through page after page of Facebook and Instagram feeds? Get into meaningless political debates with random strangers on the internet? What if, instead of doing all that, you could actually brighten someone’s day, say something nice to someone you care for just when they need it most, all the while remaining completely anonymous? Brighten is a new application available on iTunes that allows you to text random compliments to people you know without disclosing your identity unless you want to. If you could spend the first hour of day being criticized by a random stranger for something you never did, who said you can’t make a new friend or at least have someone say something nice to you?

Of course, when it comes to showing kindness, actions speak a lot louder than words. Chummy, a new social media startup turned on-demand service application, allows you to do just that. New in town and need someone to show you around? Could use a pair of extra hands to help with the move? Oh my god, did you just lose your cat at the park? With over sixty-thousand users from across the world, Chummy is the new generation’s way of asking for help and then paying it forward. Call people to your aid with a tap on the screen or scour your neighborhood for those in need of assistance. For every good deed done, you get a bunch of thank you tokens, which you can later redeem whenever you find yourself in need of assistance. Apart from helping a lot of kindhearted millenials make good use of their spare time, the app also shines a ray of hope into a world that is largely infested by darkness these days. And they aren’t the only one. Nextdoor, a San Francisco startup that is trying to reduce criminal activity by helping people living in the same locale stay in touch and get help when they need it, is working just as hard to make our communities safer and our neighborhoods warmer.

Then again, there’s no better way to help people in need than let loose the strings of your purse. While people may often shy away from the concept of donating big bucks in the name of multinational charities, applications have taught us some of the most fun and innovative ways to donate that could help make a big difference to someone we’ll probably never know at a cost that we will probably never notice. Budge, for example, encourages friendly bets placed amongst companions in an effort to make a big difference to the causes that matter, be it the environment, international peace or world poverty. There’s also Feedie, which encourages restaurants to donate money in the interest of ending world hunger every time someone takes a picture of a dish at their restaurant and shares it across their network. Givelify, on the other hand, tries to keep it simple by making it way easier to donate to your favorite charity irrespective of where you are at the moment.

Ideas are many. And I’d be lying if I said that they didn’t have potential. What remains to be seen now is whether our sense for right and wrong can finally overcome the need for selfish preservation in an exceedingly survivalistic world. What do you think?

Harold Stark covers the intersection of all things lifestyle and technology for Forbes Magazine. Follow him on Twitter!